REAL LIFE STORIES
Deborah - Self-employment: just a dream?

Deborah is a specialist landscape architect with unusual and niche experience in the heritage sector with clients including the National Trust, Historic England and local planning authorities. She has been responsible for helping to manage some of the country’s most beautiful large gardens and parks, but a few years ago Deborah began to feel that her employers didn’t value her skills and experience and going to work started to cause her a great deal of anxiety and unhappiness.

Deborah had set in place a series of annual finance review meetings and it was at one of these meetings with her Financial Planner that she raised her concerns about how she was feeling at work. She explained that she would prefer to work for herself as some of her colleagues do, but she didn’t think she had the skills to run a business, the confidence to find clients or the resources to strike out on her own.

Her financial planner told her they could help with the financial and business issues and suggested that she start to talk to prospective clients about whether they might hire her. It was clear to both that she should consider leaving her job, as it was beginning to affect her overall wellbeing, but the question remained about whether she could afford to.

Her Lifetime Cashflow Forecast showed that she would be able to manage with enough money to last for a few years if she tightened her belt a bit, until she was able to establish her own consultancy business and earn enough to make it a sustainable business.

Deborah was understandably nervous. Whilst she didn’t doubt her own ability as a landscape architect, she had never considered herself to be a businesswoman. But her Financial Planner promised to support her and help wherever they could with her business plan and personal financial planning. As the trust had been established, with their assistance and her increased confidence, she did leave her job and has gone on to develop a very successful landscape consultancy business and finds herself in greater demand every year.

Here’s a photo of Deborah leading a tour for a professional audience (National Trust, Peak District National Park) at Ilam Park, Staffordshire on behalf of the National Trust.

Most rewarding for everyone, not least her Financial Planner, is the obvious change in Deborah – with their help, her eventual decision to set up her own business has made her a more confident and certainly happier person. The important message here is to talk. If you are unhappy or discontent in your job role or relationship, then finding someone you trust to share your concerns and hopes and dreams is a crucial first step. For practical views and advice, it may well be a financial planner.

Deborah was assisted by Magenta Financial Planners and Julie Lord.

Julie Lord is CEO of Magenta Financial Planning and is always happy to provide basic financial information to help people to get a better handle on their finances and the possible solutions available to them to improve their future security and happiness.

t: 01656 760670

​w: www.magentafp.com

Magenta Financial Planning is Authorised and Regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.